Governor-Elect Gina Hinojosa: Texas Will Have Laws to Protect Texans From Data Centers, and the Building Stops Until They Exist
In a CNN interview on Thursday, Texas Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa said the state needs to stop what it is doing with data centers until protections for Texans are in place — a campaign pledge, Reuters reports, that has rattled one of the country's fastest-growing server-warehouse markets.
Texas's next governor has put the data-center boom on notice. In a CNN interview on Thursday, Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa said the state needs to stop what it is doing with data centers until it has measures in place to protect Texans. 'We will have laws to protect Texans, and we need to stop what we are doing with data centers until we have those protections,' she said, according to Reuters, which reported the interview on Friday.
Hinojosa drew a line between the industry and its terms. 'It is not that I hate data centers. I hate the way they are taking advantage of Texas, and that stops when I'm governor,' she said. Reuters reported that her campaign pledge to halt new projects has rattled the state's data-center industry, injecting new uncertainty into one of the country's fastest-growing markets for server warehouses, worth billions of dollars — a market with a heavy North Texas footprint, which is why her remarks lead this Dallas–Fort Worth file.
She also addressed the state's most prominent technology figure directly. Texas can have a strong working relationship with billionaire Elon Musk and his companies, she added, but on her administration's terms: 'It cannot be just running over the people of Texas, and that's what changes now.' Musk supported her Republican opponent, Greg Abbott, in the election and said on Wednesday that he had spent $158 million to promote Texas Republican U.S. Senate candidate Ken Paxton alone, Reuters reported. Musk's SpaceX and Tesla are headquartered in the Lone Star State, where he is also planning a chipmaking venture.
